What's Your Life Worth?

Does anybody else notice that, in America, the value of your life is dependent on your job title? If something really bad happened to you, your job title will depend on whether or not you make the news. Fucked up, isn't it?

Some time back, I remember a news report about a guy that was shot while trespassing on someone else's property at around 1am. Well it just so happened that the trespasser was an off duty police officer. So the headline was "Off Duty Police Officer Shot"...and made him sound like the victim. Now...what if that guy stocked shelves at Kroger? It would be a completely different story (if it even made the news at all). The headline wouldn't read "Off Duty Kroger Employee Shot"...no, that's not news-worthy. The headline would be "Prowler Shot". But just because this idiot is a cop for a living, it was the leading story in the morning news. If he would have been shot while on the job, I would completely understand. But in this story, the guy's job title had absolutely no relevance.

Last month, a woman in Shelbyville, TN was reported missing, and her car was found burned. Do you know how many people are reported as missing every single day in America? Well guess what...the Shelbyville woman just happened to be a teacher. Again, it was the leading story on the news, and the headline was "Missing Teacher"...not "Missing Shelbyville Woman". What does her being a teacher have anything to do with this story? What if the guy who works the fries at McDonald's had went missing? I guarantee that you wouldn't see it in the news...because as far as the media is concerned, nobody cares.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what you do for a living. Even high profile "heroic" jobs like police officers, teachers, firefighters, etc. have the ability to be complete shitbags and criminals in their off time. But in America, their life is worth much more than yours. Just take a minute and really think about that. And you thought you were insignificant before. So if you want to know what your life is worth, just ask the American media...they'll let you know. They all carry a job-to-worth conversion chart in the top drawer of their news desk.